4 ms·

This is really interesting question. Outside of hip-hop I listen to the instruments far more than the vocals. Even with hip-hop though I'm very much listening t

• beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago
  It's very genre dependent. Mary Halvorson, for instance, is a great pick, but jazz is, and likely always will be, about individual musicians. Especially be-bop and bop oriented jazz where virtuosity is highly prized. Even when they form groups, the focus is on the interplay of the individual players. Halvorson is rather interesting as she is considered a great guitarist and a great composer. The same is often true in rock and metal (especially the more extreme variants). The solo and the riff are very highly prized. Fans will follow individual instrumentalists across bands, and the "selling point" of one band will often be the mixture of the instrumentalists. A recent example is the revamped Gorguts lineup, which is a really a superstar line-up of avantgarde-esque metal musicians. Featured solos are still common. Vocals, when screamed, are often seen more as percussion or rhythmic texture rather than the centerpiece of the music. In metal, instrumental acts are still quite common and popular (obviously relative, pop music still dominates the charts).
  • lancesells 3y ago
    Well said. I'm a big metal fan and agree that vocals are fairly textural (especially death metal) and more of a sound. And always good to see Gorguts being mentioned in a comment. Ha.